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Saint John’s University in New York hosted actress Rosario Dawson — an advocate of same-sex “marriage” – for a voter registration drive as part of her efforts with a pro-abortion rights group she co-founded, called “Voto Latino.”
The university promoted Dawson’s campus visit with a press release nothing that the actress came to the Catholic campus as a co-founder of the group “Voto Latino.” But the group itself clearly promotes views antithetical to Church teaching.

Check this out. Republicans are accused of a war on women. How 'bout Obama's war on diabetics? This story by Adrienne shows how messed up Obama's priorities are:

The Annual Notice of Changes for 2013 for True Blue Medicare Advantage Plan just hit the mailbox.
Here's just one change:
Diabetes Program and Supplies:
2012 You pay 0% of the cost for Medicare-covered diabetes monitoring supplies.
2013 You pay 10% of the cost for Medicare-covered diabetes monitoring supplies.
I'm not a diabetic so I never paid much attention to what was covered and what wasn't.

No word yet on what the violation was, but I assume it must be far more serious than using an alias or a computer. Given the insanity of the past two weeks, replete with the White House nudging Google to pull the video off of YouTube and the State Department running ads on Pakistani TV to apologize for a movie they had nothing to do with, I can’t quite believe the DOJ would risk the perception that they’re punishing this guy for a thoughtcrime unless something serious was involved. There has to be a real crime underlying this. Right?

I’ve been following sports for a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this.
A video posted by the Purdue University intramural sports league captures what words don’t do the best job of describing: in short, it’s a backwards, behind-the-back, 30-yard touchdown bomb. Yes, you read that right. And since that doesn’t really do it justice, here’s the video:

This is a fascinating piece published in USA Today that features a non-believer defending Catholic's right to religious freedom. And there's a brief shout-out to Theology of the Body as well.

Several years ago, some bohemians living in the capital city of Texas began distributing bumper stickers that read, "Keep Austin Weird."
It was their way of calling for the preservation of the community's sometimes-peculiar identity against cookie-cutter chains threatening to "McDonaldize" their hometown.
Now, I do not consider myself a weirdo, though my teenage kids probably have a different opinion, and I actually like some national chains. But I am convinced that we need to make the Austin campaign national: "Keep America Weird."

As college football nears the midpoint of its 143rd season, Lou Holtz is among the many taking it in. The 75-year-old ESPN analyst has seen more than his share of games, mostly from the sidelines as a head coach. He has coached a total of 388 games at six Division I schools.

Earlier this year, a group of University of Notre Dame faculty and staff drafted a letter in support of the “LGBTQ community” at Notre Dame, after the University announced it would not add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination clause despite pressure from some student groups and faculty.
Now, a petition signed by 366 Notre Dame faculty, administration and staff was published yesterday in the campus newspaper as a full page ad urging the university to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination clause.

A new generation of young men and women in China are challenging their country’s one-child policy
The internet is making it impossible for Chinese authorities to keep their shameful policy away from international scrutiny

Michelle Obama's new lunch program is now in place, and since it not only costs more, but is so inadequate that kids are actually going hungry, we can call it, like every other Obama program from the stimulus and the green energy scams to the non-existent jobs programs and Obamacare, a Complete and Utter Success. Kids and parents may disagree but that's just because they don't know what's good for them. Michelle does. The name of the program was a sure predictor of its results:

Denis McNamara to speak at La Crose Cathedral Oct 6th
Cincinnati architect Edward Schulte designed the La Crosse Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman at the peak of his career as a church architect of national prominence. The designer of four cathedrals and more than 80 churches across the nation, Schulte was recognized as the leading American architect for Catholic churches in the years from World War II to the early 1960s. With his unreserved commitment to both modern inventiveness and a deep sense of churchliness, he used traditional imagery, texts, materials and allied arts integrated into buildings recognizably of his age, making him a uniquely inventive and successful figure in ecclesiastical circles.

After a Chicago alderman claimed last week that Chick-fil-A had agreed not to fund pro-family organizations, the fast food chain’s president Dan Cathy has set the record straight.
“Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been,” he said in a statement posted on Mike Huckabee’s website on Friday

Cardinal Francis George, speaking Sunday at a mass to celebrate the golden anniversaries of more than 400 couples, used the celebration as a platform to reiterate the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
The cardinal spoke at a ceremony where 400 couples who have been married for 50 years renewed their wedding vows at Holy Name Cathedral.
George honored the couples for their lifetime commitments to each other, and the families they have helped to raise

Today, September 20, 2012, the winners of the 2012-2013 Catholic High School Honor Roll competition were announced by The Cardinal Newman Society. Since 2004, the Honor Roll has recognized excellence in Catholic identity, academics and civic education at Catholic high schools across the United States.
The top 50 schools are recognized for overall excellence, and other schools receive honors for special recognition in particular categories. This year seven schools were recognized for excellence in Catholic identity, six schools for academics, five schools for civic education, and five schools for two of the three categories.

“What’s going on?” asked the therapist.
“I told my doctor that I am having issues with anxiety. I’ve had three babies in the last four years and just found I’m pregnant again, and no matter how hard I try, I keep having panic attacks. I feel out of control. I’m ready to admit I need help. I have some past issues I need to face, but I don’t know what to do. My doctor said I could talk to you because you have experience helping pregnant women.” It all finally came out, stuttered, yet punctuated, a first plea for professional help.
“Why do you feel anxious?”

For an industry that's constantly yelling about free speech Hollywood seems pretty OK with arresting this dopey maker of the Muhammad video. Not Robert Davi:

Davi Calls Out P.C. Hollywood for Abandoning Free Speech
Veteran actor/singer Robert Davi is calling out his fellow entertainers for not standing up against the forces trying to diminish an artist's right to free speech.

The Obama administration continued to claim Sunday that the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were not planned or coordinated but spontaneous responses to news of an anti-Islam video that happened to take place on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It’s a highly dubious claim, challenged by top Libyan officials, eyewitness accounts, several U.S. officials with access to the intelligence on the attack, and, it must be said, by common sense.

Human beings are essentially social in nature. The second theme of Catholic social teaching is the importance of social relationships and participation in society for human flourishing. Because of the importance of the family, community, and participation, I will break this principle into two posts: the family first, and community and participation second.

Wow.
An extremely dedicated dog has continued to show its loyalty, keeping watch on its owner’s grave six years after he passed away. Capitan, a German shepherd, reportedly ran away from home after its owner, Miguel Guzman, died in 2006. A week later, the Guzman family found the dog sitting by his grave in central Argentina.

In recognition of Yom Kippur, the White Sox announced today that the September 25th home game against the Indians has been moved up from 7:10 p.m. CDT to 1:10, thereby accommodating its third baseman, Kevin Youkilis (.235/.340/.416), and observant fans.
“I guess that means I can play,” smiled Youkilis, who is Jewish. “I really didn’t know. I know there was talk that there was something about maybe changing it for the fans on that day. But it’s a good thing for the playoff stretch.”

Tim Gill and his band of big donors spent a fortune seeking to pass gay marriage in Rhode Island — but last night was a bad night for pro-gay marriage Dems in Rhode Island, according to the Providence Phoenix:

One of the Ontario government’s lead trainers and advisors on its controversial equity and inclusive education strategy says attempts by parents to withdraw their children from objectionable classes on sexuality is an “attack” on inclusivity in the schools.
The comment was made to the Toronto Star Monday by Chris D’Souza, the chair of the Equity Summit Group, a former teacher in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, and an equity trainer who has led sessions in over a dozen Catholic school boards across Ontario.
Chris D'Souza
This LifeSiteNews reporter questioned D’Souza about the comment Tuesday, asking also his view on policies adopted by the Toronto District School Board and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board that forbid parents from withdrawing children from classes dealing with homosexuality.
In reply, he said simply: “Here is your quote Patrick: You are all clutching at straws and have lost the battle.”

Four people have been killed but all the media wants to talk about is the gall of Romney to criticize Obama. Funny, I don't remember all this hand wringing when Obama was criticizing the war in Iraq. Weird, huh? The Weekly Standard reports:

Mitt Romney is being accused of crass political opportunism for speaking up about the attacks on U.S. interests in Egypt and Libya on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. And not just by his political opponents. By Wednesday evening Reuters, in a straight news piece, reported that Romney’s comments “had become a public relations debacle for the Republican’s presidential campaign” and risked being seen as “unsavory political opportunism.”

The past several weeks have made one thing crystal-clear: Our country faces unmitigated disaster if the Other Side wins.
No reasonably intelligent person can deny this. All you have to do is look at the way the Other Side has been running its campaign. Instead of focusing on the big issues that are important to the American People, it has fired a relentlessly negative barrage of distortions, misrepresentations and flat-out lies.

Just as Ruth Vader said -- we gotta' get rid of the populations we don't want too many of:

A new study from Yale University and City University of New York shows that if the Republican Party abortion platform came to fruition and states could outlaw abortion, not only would the national abortion rate drop, but the rate among non-white Americans would drop the most.

Catholic nuns. When you think of them, you may harken back to grade school, or your great aunt Sister Mary, or maybe even Sally Field flying around your TV screen.
But consider taking another look at Catholic nuns. They’re not all rulers, dunce chairs, and old women anymore. They’re marketing geniuses.

So Rove is working hard to save Planned Parenthood? Perfect. Just perfect. I'm not surprised. The guy's a consultant. He's not paid to be brave. He's paid to see the angles that's best for the organization's survival and consult in that way. Rove is probably just not all that interested in right and wrong. Sad. Rove has never seemed to be a pro-lifer in any real way. Maybe he is but I've never gotten that vibe from anything he's said.

The new book Planned Bullyhood, scheduled for release tomorrow, chronicles the insider perspective of Karen Handel, the former Komen for the Cure vice president who quit after the breast cancer charity reversed its decision and funded Planned Parenthood after deciding to end grants to the abortion giant.
The book contains a section in which Handel essentially accuses Karl Rove of giving Susan G. Komen for the Cure CEO Nancy Brinker bad advise on the Komen-Planned Parenthood fight. As Handel tells it, Rove told Brinker Komen should reverse course and renew funding to Planned Parenthood, while Handel attempted to convince the cancer group’s founder to stay the course on its December 2011 decision to revoke funding to groups like Planned Parenthood that don’t directly provide mammograms for women.

Monsignor William Blacet rises early to start his prayers. He celebrates Mass every day at Our Lady of Good Counsel. He hears confessions and gives counsel. He conducts weddings and funerals.
He cruised past his 90th birthday in December.
“I was not ordained to retire,” explains the oldest pastor in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. “As long as I can do the duties of pastor, that’s what I want to do.”
Seven men were ordained this year in the diocese, the largest single-year number in the last 30... Also, 10 men are beginning studying for the priesthood this year.
“Here we are in a period of unprecedented upheaval in the diocese. Yet more young men are coming to the diocese to enter seminary than in two generations,” he said. “And I don’t know why.”
“In the Midwest, we are doing far better than the coasts,” he said proudly.

I know folks are seeing polls out there putting Obama in the lead. But I'm not sure I'm buying it. A lot of these polls are bonkers. Check out this one:

The latest CNN/ORC poll released today shows a wider lead for President Obama than the previous CNN/ORC poll but it is doubly skewed. It massively under-samples independents while it also over-samples Democratic voters. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll official reports Obama at 52 to percent and Mitt Romney at 46 percent. Unskewed, the data reveals a 53 percent to 45 percent lead for Romney.

Writer-director Nick Cassavetes unveiled his new movie “Yellow” at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend and found himself defending the main character’s incestuous love affair with her own brother....
“I have no experience with incest,” he told TheWrap in an interview on Sunday. “We started thinking about that. We had heard a few stories where brothers and sisters were completely, absolutely in love with one another. You know what? This whole movie is about judgment, and lack of it, and doing what you want

It's just great knowing Archbishop Chaput is our guy in Philadelphia. Here he writes about the death penalty. I am against the death penalty but I could see how it could be justified in some cases, especially when our justice system seems intent on releasing even the hardest of criminals and endangering all of us:

Even when a defendant is well defended, properly tried and justly found guilty, experience shows that capital punishment simply doesn't work as a deterrent. Nor does it heal or redress any wounds, because only forgiveness can do that. It does succeed though in answering violence with violence -- a violence wrapped in the piety of state approval, which implicates all of us as citizens in the taking of more lives.
Turning away from capital punishment does not diminish our support for the families of murder victims. They bear a terrible burden of grief, and they rightly demand justice. Real murderers deserve punishment; but even properly tried and justly convicted murderers – men and women who are found guilty of heinous crimes -- retain their God-given dignity as human beings. When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process.

James Fairbanks and Alain Beret, married business partners from Sutton, had been searching for the perfect property for nearly two years when they discovered Oakhurst, an aging mansion on 26 beautiful acres in Northbridge. The former retreat center, which was affiliated with the Diocese of Worcester and had been on the market for some time, would be the ideal spot for their next venture: an inn that would host weddings and other big events.
When the Diocese of Worcester unexpectedly dropped out of negotiations with them in June, Fairbanks and Beret were shocked — and flummoxed. Then, they say, a church attorney inadvertently forwarded their broker an e-mail from Monsignor Thomas Sullivan, chancellor of the diocese, advising a church broker that he was no longer interested in selling to Fairbanks and Beret “because of a potentiality of gay marriages” there.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said Saturday that Sandra Fluke should "get a job." (Image source: YouTube) Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said Saturday that Sandra Fluke should "get a job." (Image source: YouTube)
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) had a message had a message for Sandra Fluke during a campaign stop on Saturday: for Sandra Fluke during a campaign stop on Saturday: You’re 31 years old, “go get a job.” You’re 31 years old, “go get a job.”
Prefacing his comments as a “rant,” Walsh called the Georgetown Law School graduate’s speech Prefacing his comments as a “rant,” Walsh called the Georgetown Law School graduate’s speech at the Democratic National Convention “embarrassing.”

The smartest parents in Chicago right now are those whose kids attend charter schools, private schools, or parochial schools. Those institutions don’t employ Chicago’s unionized public-school teachers, who went out on strike this morning for the first time in 25 years.
The coverage of the strike has obscured some basic facts. The money has continued to pour into Chicago’s failing public schools in recent years. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits. The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Yet the teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase over four years at a time when most families are not getting any raises or are looking for work.

And they don't seem to understand at all what made the first one so good. Check out the trailer just to cringe and then forget you ever saw it:

Throughout history, there have been movies that should never have been made. Ishtar. Heaven’s Gate. The Happening. Grease 2. Anything starring that Jim Varney dude.
As bad as those were, this one might eclipse them all.

What a fabulously confident and ingenuous-seeming political narcissist Ms. Fluke is. She really does think—and her party apparently thinks—that in a spending crisis with trillions in debt and many in need, in a nation in existential doubt as to its standing and purpose, in a time when parents struggle to buy the good sneakers for the kids so they're not embarrassed at school . . . that in that nation the great issue of the day, and the appropriate focus of our concern, is making other people pay for her birth-control pills. That's not a stand, it's a non sequitur. She is not, as Rush Limbaugh oafishly, bullyingly said, a slut. She is a ninny, a narcissist and a fool.
And she was one of the great faces of the party in Charlotte. That is extreme. Childish, too.

Patrick Madrid is a phenomenal apologist. I’m glad he’s on our team, because let’s face it, he’s practically unstoppable. He writes, he blogs, he’s on the radio (his brand new radio show launches today, in fact!), he’s on EWTN, he travels hither and yon, he debates, he headlines conferences, he produced Envoy magazine, he’s an adjunct professor at Steubenville, he has DVD’s…he even had a World Youth Day event named after him.
And while he would humbly say that he’s merely trying to serve God and His Church, and doing the best he can with the gifts God has given him, that’s only telling part of the story. Because one of the gifts God has given him is wicked awesome.
The Stache.

There is something about television and movies -- more than radio or the internet (except perhaps for YouTube) -- that seems to confer a strange anointing, what we know as "celebrity." Perhaps it is the size of the screen or the thought that someone is so many places -- in a million homes -- at once. It is a dangerous place for clergy. Is there something inherently the matter with it? The Vatican tells us to use modern means of communication, and surely good comes from it (particularly when it transmits the Mass). But is there indeed a mysterious strangeness, a bubble of the artificial (an artifice)? When someone is a celebrity, or "electrifying," a flag should go up, for this is the devil's turf (said Saint Pio).

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student turned contraceptive activist, is a rising political star. There’s no doubt about that now. With the Democratic National Convention giving her a prime time speaking slot, President Obama and the Democrat party are clearly doubling down that the HHS mandate will equal women’s votes.
It is sad that Fluke rose to prominence at a Jesuit university, criticizing the fact that the university wouldn’t pay for her contraception. It is sad that Georgetown supported her and even asked her to speak to students.
But sadder still is that Fluke misled people in her nationally televised speech by telling lies that have been proven to be lies by The Cardinal Newman Society and many others.

The Diocese of Charlotte is holding a Vigil for Liberty with Eucharistic adoration at St. Patrick Cathedral just a mile away from the Democratic National Convention.
“The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte is pleased to offer a gift to our nation, and that is over 80 hours of Eucharistic adoration and prayer for our country,” Bishop Peter J. Jugis said in his homily for the vigil’s Sept. 4 Mass.
“We are keeping our attention and our hearts fixed on Jesus,” he said.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) appeared to botch American and Brooklyn political history during an appearance on “The Colbert Report” that aired Tuesday night, saying that slavery in the United States persisted under the Dutch as late as 1898.
Colbert was quizzing Clarke on the history of her borough.

Our society tries to make women believe that dating is supposed to be like the TV show Sex and the City. Well let me tell you something, that is a lie from the pit of hell. That’s not dating, that’s glorified objectification and impurity at its finest. An authentic man doesn’t taint a woman’s purity. An authentic man stands up to heroically protect it, and vice versa. That show and countless others is the direct opposite of this beautiful truth.

In addition to the usual teen and children’s programs and the expected selection of workshops on such topics as the power of God and healing relationships, the 41st annual Catholic Renewal Convention sponsored by offered a look into the reality of evil in the world today.

When my twelve-year-old son, Donnie became involved with drugs and alcohol, as far as I could tell, he was still the same obedient and kindhearted son he had always been. We had been close during his childhood but I failed to recognize the changes he was going through.
In many ways, Donnie and I grew up together. I was only eighteen when I had him, so I went from being a teenager to a mother. We always had a strong love and bond between us. When Donnie was ten-years old, I married Don Calloway, an officer in the Navy. The two Dons in my life took to each other with great affection. Don soon adopted my son as his own.

Hey, we've got to get rid of those populations we don't want too many of somehow:

Democrats released their approved platform last night, a curious Labor Day exercise considering the results. With unemployment the chief concern of voters in this election, how often does the word “unemployment” appear in the DNC document? BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski counted, and found only three mentions;abortion got four. What other terms outplay the biggest issue in this election? Andrew finds a few interesting comparisons in his pictorial:

“And how is the little one enjoying vacation?”
I was lying on my back on a hotel room bed, with one hand holding the phone to my ear and the other hand resting on my pregnant belly.
“He’s liking it just fine, Mom,” I answered. Then, feeling a small quiver of movement below my navel, I added, “And he says ‘hello’ to his grandma.”
Exactly three weeks later I was again lying on my back, this time on a hospital room table. I was afraid to look at the monitor, so I fixed my eyes on a corner of the ceiling and tried hard to think of pleasant things. It was a sunny August day, and my seven children were probably having a grand time at my friend Jean’s place. Jean and her family lived in a huge old house with lots of good hiding places, and a backyard with an in-ground pool. I imagined the kids splashing happily in the pool, and then drying off and heading indoors for a round of hide-and-seek…

Franciscan friar Father Benedict Groeschel has stepped down as host of EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime television show following his apology for making comments about the sexual abuse of minors.
“Father Benedict has led a life of tremendous compassion and service to others and his spiritual insights have been a great gift to the EWTN family for many years. We are profoundly grateful to him and assure him of our prayers,” Michael P. Warsaw, president and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, said Sept. 3.

Will giving high-profile speaking roles at the Democratic National Convention to abortion activists, like the heads of NARAL and Planned Parenthood, make it difficult for Democrats to reach out to religious voters? Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a Methodist minister, told me Monday he doesn't think it will be a problem. "They're not telling people to get abortions," he explained.
But NARAL and Planned Parenthood do lobby for extreme policies on abortion. Like President Obama, they oppose any restrictions whatsoever. I asked Cleaver if he also believes late-term abortions should be legal. He said he was "unaware" of the issue. I asked Cleaver the question a second time, but he repeated his non-answer and walked away. In July, Cleaver voted to uphold the District of Columbia's abortion-until-birth policy.

No remotely objective person would pretend that Barack Obama is a humble man. So the challenge for the O-faithful is to spin his prodigious ego as a positive. Jodi Kantor, author of The Obamas, has a piece in the New York Times this weekend which acknowledges the president's robust self-esteem but considers the possibility that Obama is merely a fierce competitor, a confident perfectionist "obsessed with virtuosity," a gifted man striving for excellence. Kantor:

Most election years, I watch both conventions. I hear some good speeches, but I was also pay attention to what is not said. Part of the purpose of a convention is to introduce the party/person to the people. Both conventions are first and foremost, giant commercial parties for the faithful. Here's how they usually go regardless of your party affiliation:

The fine state of public education and the iron fortress of the teachers unions gets yet another black eye this week after video emerged of a shocking incident which took place in the classroom earlier this year. The action allegedly took place back in February in Gig Harbor, Florida Washington, but the public didn’t become aware of it until a video shot on cell phone by another student began making the rounds and the child’s family is crying foul.